


A Recipe for True Friendship and Total Disaster

by MrsArmageddon



Category: Simonverse | Creekwood Series - Becky Albertalli, The Great British Bake Off RPF
Genre: F/M, M/M, im so sorry, that one try guy video of ned and ariel, thats what inspired me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 13:32:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17468531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsArmageddon/pseuds/MrsArmageddon
Summary: The crew try to bake. One fails spectacularly. It's a mess, you'll see.AKA the Gingerbread Baking AU written by an Aussie that no one asked for.





	A Recipe for True Friendship and Total Disaster

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Home-Cooked Vs. $1000 Gingerbread House](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/450242) by Try Guys. 



> IT HASNT BEEN A YEAR SHUT UP I DONT KNOW WHAT YOURE TALKING ABOUT 
> 
> This is my Secret Santa gift to Geneticallymutatedglitter on the Creek Secret Discord WOO 
> 
> Enjoyyyyy

“Why can’t I be with Simon?” 

The evening started out with a simple desire for home-made cookies. And then turned into a discussion about said cookies. Which led to a debate about what was the best way to cook cookies (gooey won). And then revealed the realisation that no one had ever tried gingerbread, much less gingerbread cookies. Which led to… this. 

Leah rolled her eyes. 

“Because if I set the main groupings up with each other, it’ll just be a disgusting lovefest of mush and no gingerbread drama,” she explained. “With this way, at least there’ll be some excitement and competition”. Out of the corner of his eye, Bram saw Nick wipe frosting onto Simon’s cheek. 

Abby grinned. “Something tells me this won’t be much of a competition.” 

The Spier family kitchen had been transformed on this measly quiet Tuesday night into a mini gingerbread house factory, with various baking necessities separated into ceramic bowls and scattered across the island bench. Simon and Nick were planted at one side of the island, and Bram and Abby were at the other, with Leah sat on a bar stool, halfway between the two teams. The whole scene would’ve looked a lot more serious – a lot more like a professional bake-off – if the crew weren’t wearing animal onesies. It was that kind of movie night. 

Leah cleared her throat. 

“Okay, rule time. Two teams, 30 minutes. The team who makes the prettiest, yummiest, and fully functioning gingerbread house – meaning it can actually stand on its own – wins bragging rights and a full cake of bread o’ ginger. The losers will have their house smashed to smithereens in the best possible way.” 

Bram shot a quick glance over at Abby. He’d been invited via text by Simon to come and watch a few movies with their friends, and since Bram finished his homework early, he had agreed. What he hadn’t agreed to was potential baking-fuelled friendship destruction. 

Simon was pretty blasé over things like this, so long as he was having a great time with those he cared about. Abby, on the other hand, was extremely competitive. Even now, she had a glint in her eye, like she was ready to throw down and show no mercy. This was either going to be a great night, or a long one. 

“Ready?” Leah announced, phone in hand. “Annnddd…... Go!” 

Abby launched herself at the ingredients, her hands blurring. On the other side, Bram could see Simon frowning at a few of the bowls in front of him. 

“Do you even know what goes in gingerbread?” He asked Nick. He scoffed. 

“It’s in the name, Si. It’s just the ingredients for bread, but with a hell of a lot of ginger thrown in. How hard could that be?” Simon didn’t look convinced. 

Abby nudged Bram’s shoulder, regaining his attention. 

“Lucky for us,” she whispered, “my cousin used to make gingerbread cookies all the time when we were kids. We’ve got this in the bag.” 

Bram stared at her. “Is there anything you can’t do?” 

She only winked in response and got to work. 

***

Well, work was kind of the wrong term to use. 

After staring intensely at each bowl of ingredients, Abby simply shrugged, threw everything into one big mixing bowl and started mixing it together. “Leah can’t have given us wrong ingredients, right?” She looked back at Bram, who only gave a helpless shrug. 

On the other side of the bench, the enemy team were getting creative. Bram tried to hide his smile as he witnessed Nick’s quite persuasive argument about why Simon should let him put blueberries into their dough. 

“It’ll make it sweeter and mask the taste of failure!”

“That makes no sense, Nick” Simon groaned, only to watch Nick throw them in anyway with a gleeful smile. Simon caught Bram’s eye, and smiled, which made Bram turn red in return, and tried to hide it by refocusing back on his teammate. 

Abby handled every challenge thrown at her with an intense precision. Bram had seen it before; when after-school drama sessions had Simon and her learning lines in the school auditorium, Simon seemed to apply almost no visible effort to his, while Abby rehearsed them to utter perfection. Even now, while pouring batter into a plastic bag, she had her eyes narrowed, her nose slightly scrunched, and was mouthing instructions to herself, like a single spill could ruin the whole night. Nothing could throw her off her game when she got into the zone like this, and Bram admired her for that. After a few moments, she let out a breath and stood up straight, a victorious grin spreading across her face. 

“Alright, now its time to freeze the dough,” she explained in a kind of loud whisper, so as not to let the others hear. “When its hard enough, we can start making the shapes of the house.” 

“So, you’ve made gingerbread cookies before?” Bram asked. She shook her head.

“Not me, I just watched. I was more into the decorating part than the messy baking part,” she laughed, gesturing to her sticky hands. Bram chuckled too. “No, I’m not much of a baker. But, I mean, you do this to make normal cookies, right? So, it can’t be that much different,” Abby shrugged. “Anyway, I’m sure that whatever we throw together, it’ll be better than theirs.” A dropped bowl suddenly caught their attention. 

Nick had somehow scrounged more ingredients from the fridge without Leah noticing, and was still trying to throw them together into their dough while both Simon and Leah tried to rip the bowl away. It was a jumble of hands and grumbles and “Nick, stop, that doesn’t go in there!” that made Bram’s stomach hurt with laughter. 

***

Eventually, both teams had their gingerbread dough hardened, and then it was time to create the shapes. Abby explained her idea of a cute little one-story cottage, with some little front door steps, a tiny garden and a cobblestone path, whereas Simon decided to take point after Nick’s fiasco and make a simple bird-house styled gingerbread house. 

Bram had to laugh at his friends. There was total silence amongst them, not a single one of them spoke for fear of losing concentration. Even Leah, who was previously scrolling through social media on her phone, now watched both sides of the island with sheer curiosity. It was kind of hilarious, and kind of adorable. None of them would put even half of this much energy and effort into their actual schoolwork (except maybe Bram), and it made him love his friends even more. 

Abby threw the last remaining side of the house into the oven and wiped her forehead. “Okay, now… what goes on a gingerbread house as decoration?”

“Uh, I believe the answer to your question would be: everything,” Leah called over. Abby smiled back. 

“Alright, then. Everything, coming right up!” 

“Hey, hey! No sucking up to the judge!” Nick chimed, waving a finger at the two girls. His arm movement knocked into Simon’s elbow, which caused him to slice off the top corner of his gingerbread roof piece, which of course, earned Nick with a very hard shove back and a loud chortle from Leah. Abby turned to Bram. 

“What kind of sweets do you like, Bram?”

He thought for a moment. 

“Jelly beans?” 

“Jelly beans work!” They shared a smile and got to work decorating. 

***

Bram thought he knew both Simon and Abby fairly well. But one thing he didn’t know until now: they were both good at decorating gingerbread houses. Bram assumed it was because they were both drama kids and had spent many afternoons painting scenery backdrops. Now, they were both in their element. After sticking the structure together with white icing, Abby had created a rainbow pattern of jellybeans and smarties all over the roof, while Bram was tasked with making the front door steps and the cobblestone path. The other team, on the other hand, was struggling just to keep their house together. 

“Why wont it stick?” Nick growled, as his side pieces collapsed for the third time. Simon had given up helping, and moved his roof pieces further to the side, towards Leah, where he could work in peace. He looked up and eyed Nick. 

“What are you using for glue? Not actual glue, I hope.” 

“Ha-ha,” Nick stuck his tongue out at him. “Very funny. No, I’m using melted butter.” 

“Melted butter? You’re supposed to be using icing, Nick!” 

“But plain white icing is so boring! Let me express my artistic flair, Si!”

“I’ll crush your artistic flair if that house doesn’t stay upright,” Simon grumbled. 

Bram glanced at Abby. 

“They don’t work very well, do they?” He remarked. 

Abby smiled behind her hands. 

“They work in mysterious ways, Abraham. Some days they share the same brain, and other days…. Well, you know what I mean.” 

Bram glanced back at the two of them. Nick was furiously searching through the fridge, while Simon continued crumbling his Oreo biscuits over his roof piece. His boyfriend had a peaceful look on his face – he didn’t seem to have the same laser-sharp focus that Abby had, but he still looked very determined, while also having fun. Simon was very easy-going; whatever made his friends happy, made him happy too. If they wanted to destroy his family’s kitchen, he would happily oblige, so long as he was involved, and they were all having a great time. Bram loved that about him. He also loved his hands, and the way they curled into themselves when he was crushing the biscuits, and how he bent over the bench, nose almost touching the gingerbread, and – 

As if on cue, Simon looked up and caught Bram’s eye. Simon smiled, and it almost seemed like he could read Bram’s mind, which made his heart thud. He smiled back and kept smiling until Abby nudged him in the stomach. 

“Focus, Greenfeld! There’ll be time for drooling over our boyfriends after the competition.” 

***

“Alright, time’s up!” Leah looked up from her phone. “Let’s see what you got!”

Two gingerbread houses were placed in front of her; one was completely covered in a beautiful rainbow mixture of jelly beans and smarties, matched with white icing etched around the doorway, tiny front door steps (made from blocks of cut-up Flake bars), and a cobblestone footpath, with squished marshmallows and sugar; the other was missing two sides to its structure, and half of the roof had caved in on itself, but had piles of gummy worms, hundreds and thousands, liquorice strips and M&Ms toppled on top. It was a giant lolly mess, and Bram was pretty sure the gingerbread pieces were lumpy. 

Leah stared at the two dishes. “Yeah, this is a no-brainer.” 

“Aw, c’mon, you haven’t even tried them yet,” Nick complained, as Abby and Bram shared a victory high-five. 

“Okay then,” Leah picked up a spoon, and dug into the boys’ disaster, picking up some gingerbread mixed in with gummy worms. She immediately spat it out. “Okay, one: its burnt. Two: its salty. Why is it salty, Nick?! And three: I’m pretty sure I ate a blueberry because it burst in my mouth and it was not a good burst, Nick. It is never a good burst. And I don’t even want to know what else is in there.” She looked over at Abby and Bram. “I deem thee victors. Destroy as you will.”

Abby looked at Bram, and they simultaneously threw a fist into the remaining standing pieces of the enemies’ gingerbread house, as Nick tried to shield it with his outstretched hands, shouting “Nooooooo!”, and Simon and Leah laughed uncontrollably. It was a total disaster, but Bram couldn’t stop smiling. 

***

After an intense hour of consoling Nick’s competitive spirit, then cleaning duty, followed quickly by eating duty, the crew retired to their sleeping bags, nestled on the floor of the Spier basement. Simon and Bram sat together on the floor, while Leah curled up into her sleeping bag, and Nick and Abby cuddled on the couch. 

“I cannot believe we lost! I really thought we had it in the bag!” Nick groaned for the fifth time to Abby, who simply patted his shoulder in remorse. 

Simon grinned at Bram. 

“They were worthy victors, Nick. You got to give them credit,” he argued back, as his hand found Bram’s, and their fingers intertwined. Bram smiled to himself as his friends bickered. It was a good night, in the end. A disaster, but a good kind of disaster; definitely worth the mess. This would be the kind of memory they’d look back on and smile, maybe after graduation, when they all went off their separate ways. That warmed his heart, and he leaned into Simon’s side in bliss. Abby sent him a sneaky wink. 

Nick frowned. 

“But I have never made a bad dish! My family loves when I cook for them! I’ve never failed!” 

“Maybe, Nick, the reason why you’ve never failed, is because they’ve never actually eaten your stuff?” Nick’s protests were drowned out by a round of laughter. 

Bram’s friends were weird, but a good kind of weird. He couldn’t have asked for anything better.

**Author's Note:**

> For some reason Simon is the only one i cannot write in character for, my interpretation of him is always so OOC and changes in every fic whoops.  
> I also love the idea that Nick cant cook for shit but does that stop him? hell nooo. 
> 
> Thank you @ Snow for always being my beta and happy holidays to everyone else reading this! (Shut up i know this is posted in January im still on holidays so it counts) 
> 
> My goal this year is to publish a LOT more stuff on here so.... you know... look out for that.


End file.
